Orochi

Objective Rating (How much merit I think it deserves):
6.5/10
Subjective Rating (How much I personally like it):
7/10

Year made: 2008
Runtime: 107 minutes
IMDB page: here


There is a thing in the world called SUBTITLE. Do not fear it; it is your friend. It allows you to watch so many more movies than you can otherwise dream of. And most of these movies are quite interesting, if only for the fact they are made in a language you cannot understand.

"Orochi" means snake/serpent in Japanese. It's actually the mythical 8-headed giant serpent. But don't worry, this little specimen in Japanese supernatural thriller (notice I did not say horror) does not showcase any appearance of any snake whatsoever.

Quite a few famous names are associated with this film. The director, Tsuruta Norio, has been very active in the Japanese horror scene, directing pretty excellent films like Yogen (Premonition). The screenwriter, Takahashi Hiroshi, adapted the script of Ringu and subsequent sequels and American copycat versions from the original novel. The original form of Orochi is a comic of the same name by the very famous horror artist Umezu Kazuo. My favourite horror artist will always be Ito Junji, but Umezu Kazuo will certainly be second. Umezu's work has a deep psychological chill to it, a big question mark on human nature. Some of the themes include the quest for youth, especially among women, what they are willing to do to stay young, and how jealous they can get as they age. I haven't read Orochi, but I have read Baptism by the same artist and let me tell you, I finished everything in one night. Maybe I should say one morning, because technically it was morning.

The cast is also ... The three main female leads are all very beautiful, each in their way. The male lead (though he's barely a lead... this is definitely a female-dominant film) is Yamamoto Taro, the tough guy from Battle Royale. The whole film, I was going like "is it him? No it can't be. But it looks like him. Now it doesn't." Well, it is him.

The story is told from the point of view of Orochi, a young girl in red. She is basically immortal and goes into hibernation every 100 years, so she's been around for quite a while and has seen her share of interesting things. She's mostly an impartial observer and usually doesn't interfere in anything. She takes an interest in the Monzen family, which consists of a beautiful movie-star mother and two beautiful 9-year-old daughters. The mom is very vain and rich and seems unnaturally concerned with aging (or maybe naturally?), the daughters are very close but also vying for the attention and love of their mother. She wants them to be famous performers and makes them take voice lessons. Risa, the younger one, soon gets favoured for her great voice while Kazusa, the older one, is scorned for her lack of rhythm and talent. Conflict arises and Kazusa realizes she can't win at singing, so she switches over to acting. She watches her mom's films over and over and repeats the lines.

Meantime, something seems to be going wrong with the mother. Warts start growing on her forehead and hands. She stops acting or appearing at all publicly. She's drunk all the time and seems to have a death wish. One day she drives off drunk and crashes, but Orochi protects her and gets badly injured while she's knocked out but sustains no injury. Orochi has to enter hibernation early because of the near-fatal injuries.

Years later...

I'll have to leave that for me to know and for you to find out. This movie is worth it.

There are a lot of girl-on-girl fight scenes. Hair-pulling, slapping around, that's all common. I'm impressed with how heavy and real the slaps seem. Women are really quite as capable of violence as men.